Dear reader,
Normally my Monday morning column is a serious breakdown of the Kansas City Chiefs' performance from the day before, but as the Chicago Bears know all too well, there isn't a lot of serious breakdown needed this week. I don't want to be mean or cause any bad blood with Bears fans, but the game was completely lopsided from beginning to end and Chicago simply didn't offer enough resistance to make things very compelling to write about. So I thought I'd have a little fun this week and do something different.
I don't want you to think everything has changed. I'm still going to write about the game, but I thought I'd issue a little challenge to make things more interesting. As the entire world now knows, Taylor Swift was at Arrowhead on Sunday, basically confirming the tabloid love story between her and Travis Kelce. So in honor of all the Swift hysteria, I thought I'd completely sell out and see how many of Swift's song titles I can squeeze into one piece.
I think the first thing we have to acknowledge when discussing this game is that the Bears stink. Is Andy Reid an offensive mastermind? Yes. Is Patrick Mahomes the man? Yes, but the Bears made it easy for them to get KC's struggling offense back to firing on all cylinders. Was it a completely clean game? No. Rashee Rice had a couple of drops. Jawaan Taylor continues to get targeted by the officials for doing the same thing that all tackles do and Blaine Gabbert didn't look fantastic when he came in for mop-up duty, but those are champagne problems when you win 41-10.
Mahomes looked comfortable all day long, but I think if you go back and watch the All 22 film you'll see that number fifteen was at complete peace in the pocket most of the day because of the lack of a Bears pass rush. It was also easy for receivers to find daylight and plenty of blank space in the secondary. The Chiefs putting up points like this is nothing new, but Chicago was going out of their way to make KC look like the last great American dynasty out there.
I will say that Andy Reid almost became the anti-hero today when he went for more points at the end of the first half instead of running out the clock and Patrick Mahomes tweaked his ankle. Because Mahomes is fearless, he said he could stay in the game, but Reid probably should've said no. Thankfully, Mahomes looked like he was fine in the second half and it looks like KC is out of the woods on it being anything too serious.
I wasn't the biggest Justin Fields fan when he was coming out of college, but never in my wildest dreams did I think things would be this bad at the start of his third season. As recently as this August, I thought their passing game might be improved this year with the addition of DJ Moore, but he looks lost out there. Actually he looks worse than lost, he looks like he's being haunted by pass rushers that aren't even there sometimes. Then other times it's like "You're on your own, kid" because the line provides no resistance to the opposing pass rush who are instantly on top of him.
The coaches can tell Fields to shake it off or soon you'll get better, but I don't see a lot of hope for this team this season. It really looks like next offseason it's going to be a cruel summer for a lot of people in the Bears organization. That's a team that needs to completely begin again. While Fields definitely hasn't gotten the support and stability you would have liked to see him get, I don't think the Bears should pass up a top quarterback if they're drafting near the top of the draft again this offseason.
While I think the Bears might want to tell Fields that they are "never ever getting back together" at the end of the season, I think the end may come even sooner for head coach Matt Eberflus. In fact, he may want to have a getaway car ready, because when you are a head coach with a defensive background and your defense ranks at the bottom of almost every defensive category, your days are numbered. I get that there may be some bad karma on the defensive side of the ball as a result of whatever happened with former defensive coordinator Alan Williams, but Eberflus can't keep his job if things stay this bad all season.
So should we give the boys in red credit for taking advantage of a team that is this down? Sure, they get some credit because a win is a win in the NFL, but I'm not going to give them any style points for this one. Sometimes you're just clearly the better man out there. That's a good thing, but it doesn't mean that will be the case again next week. Next week they'll face another struggling offense when the New York Jets and Zach Wilson come to town, but unlike the Bears this week that struggling offense is paired with a very good defense.
The Chiefs still have a chance to make this another enchanted season. Their defense has looked good in all three games, and if the offense can use this game to build some momentum and get back to their prolific ways, then it's possible that by the end of the season they can once again tell the Lombardi Trophy, "You belong with me."
So there you have it Chiefs fans, my game takeaways for this week inspired by the budding romance between Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce (a.k.a. the Joker and the Queen). A special shout out to my family (especially my 16-year old daughter) for helping me come up with a list of Swift songs to incorporate. How many Taylor Swift song titles did you count?